Annex
by Resisting the Borg
Summary: Chapter Two-Future Friends. Tod Pym doesn't think highly of his life-and Cassie's a superhero. T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

**_This is a new fanfic I'm doing to fill in the time between my other fanfics, but it's also a bit of a dare for myself-to see how long I can keep this going. It's based off of characters my sister created, but I'm going to expand it a little. And boy, did I get a kick out of the poetic stuff. Hah!_**

_Chapter One: Make an Enemy_

New York was not meant for the night. That much he knew.

The buildings look great when the sun was up. Sunlight gleams off the windows, creating mosaics of light, beautifying the city, and blinding the occasional incautious pedestrian. During the day, it looks like the city is the world's greatest work of art.

Then the sun goes down.

The glittering obelisks transform into giant light-up toys, glowing neon colors that shine their lights into the sky. The streets still bustle, and the cars still jockey for position.

At least, that's what you see in Times Square.

Elsewhere, among the tenements, and the broken buildings, things change in a different way. Glittering giants are transformed into ominous mountains, casting menacing shadows—if there's still light enough. The night hides everything both good and bad, leaving you nothing to trust but the row of streetlights, the glow from which is barely enough to light your way. And you can barely trust your eyes…

The meaning of which was, basically, stay indoors at night when you live in New York. If you have a place to stay. Some don't.

For instance, the black teenaged boy in the worn black trench coat, who was walking down the streets, looking for a place to stay.

Life is hard on some people, the police man had said, deal with it. The teenager rolled his eyes.

Then, the street was filled with people. The teen would consider that weird enough, but the people were also wearing bright green costumes that shone in the low golden light, making them extremely hard to miss. At their head, stood a girl roughly his own age. She was a pale white, with spiky black hair died with green streaks, a nose piercing, and wearing a costume with a green emblem that the teen recognized as the symbol for Hydra, even though it looked comically like an octopus.

"Hello there," she began, "I, Hydra Princess, order you to surrender!"

He gave her a calm, level look. "And why would that be?"

She paused. "Well… because I know who you are, and I want to take you prisoner. Now come quietly!"

"Umm," he tested, "no?"

"All right then, you've brought this on yourself. GET HIM, MEN!"

A small group of the Hydra thugs charged toward them. The teen stepped aside and tripped one. He swung his leg in a downward arch toward another's foot as it came down toward the ground. Foot injured and off balance, the thug collapsed. The teen grabbed the gun he had been carrying, and swung it like a baseball bat, knocking a third unconscious.

Hydra Princess was furious. "Why you…! Those are Mommy's men! I should just have you sho—"

Then something occurred to her.

"You!" she shouted at one of the thugs, "Shoot him!"

The gunman lifted his weapon to his shoulder, brought it to bare on the teen, who, it would seem, was an experienced martial artist, and was lifted off his feet by a web line, and slammed into a wall. Everyone stopped, and stared up.

It wasn't _quite_ Spider-Man.

"Every day, when I get out of bed," the superhero began, "I look myself in the mirror and say, 'Self, if you mind your own business, go to school like a normal person, you'll stumble randomly on a bunch of idiots wearing costumes trying to commit a crime." Although his voice sounded cheerful, it was impossible to tell if he was smiling or not, seeing as his mask covered his whole face.

"Usually, I'm painfully right."

'Hydra Princess' began jumping up and down with rage.

"Spiderling! Kill him! Kill them both!"

The teen grinned at 'Spiderling,' who nodded amiably at him. "They just can't get the name right."

* * *

_Somewhere around 146.57 thugs later…_

The last Hydra lackey slammed against the telephone pole. He collapsed, and his gun clattered down a storm drain. The two fighters turned toward the 'Hydra Princess.'

"So, you got anything going on Friday?" asked the Spider-Man kid sarcastically.

"Who cares?" asked the mysterious teen in the trench coat.

Hydra Princess looked from one to the other, back again, and pretty much lost her nerve. She spun around and ran away screaming.

"MOMMY! MOMMEEEEE!"

There was a flash of green light, and she vanished. The teen, who the superhero had decided to temporarily call Trench Coat, turned to him.

"Her mom's Madame Hydra," he explained. "Help me get all these guys together.

Hanging them from the top of a streetlight was working, until it began to bend under the weight. Then they tied them to the base of it, glued them to the walls, and stuck one head first in a garbage can.

"Well that oughta do it," 'Spiderling' said, surveying their work from atop a building. He turned to Trench Coat. "My sister's going to be mad about missing this, but she's kind of at home with the flu. So, I don't believe I've had the pleasure?"

"Call me Chak," the teen replied. Anansi shrugged.

"Nice to meet you Chak. My name is—"

"Ben Parker. Your dad's Spider-Man."

'Spiderling' paused. "Huh. I thought I was being careful about that." He pulled off the mask, revealing another teen, this one white with bright red hair that would mark him from a hundred miles. "But I was actually going to say—"

"Anansi," Chak cut him off.

Ben stared. "Finally!" he shouted. "Finally someone who actually KNOWS MY CODE NAME! Ha!"

"I take it that doesn't happen much?"

"Very rarely, outside my immediate family," Ben replied. "So, where do you…"

"Midvale. I guess we don't have many of the same classes.

"If you want to talk, we can chat before and after school."

"Sounds cool."

Ben groaned, pulling on his mask. "No rhyming please."

Chak smirked. "Sure."

"Well, catch you later."

Anansi, as he preferred to be known, leapt out above the street. He fired a web-line off, and swung out. Chak stared after him, and then headed for the elevator.


	2. Chapter 2

**Tod and Cassie will also feature big in the next planned chapter.**

_Chapter Two: Future Friends_

Tod Pym's mother, Janet Van Dyne-Pym, was good at a number of things. She was a world-famous fashion designer, a great listener, a super-powered crime fighter known as the Wasp, and had countless other skills. In fact, Tod could count only one thing that was a problem.

She just didn't know how to _cook_.

Today, he was seated around the table with his mom, the Doctor (also known as his dad, Hank Pym, a super-hero who just couldn't decide on a costume or code name), His sister, Gwendolyn "Gwendy" Pym, an aspiring superhero by the name of Yellowjacket, and his adoptive brother Mark, who was… a robot. _Long_ story.

Mark was currently poking the meatloaf that Janet had set before him as if he were afraid it would come to life and attack him. Tod stared down dubiously at his own portion. Gwen started in on hers enthusiastically enough that she nearly choked. The Doctor gave his wife a patronizing glance.

"I don't know what's wrong with you guys!" Janet exclaimed at length. "I only tried to make meatloaf. The only one eating is Gwen!"

"I'f ha a ay uf riruh gri fighing," replied Gwen around a mouthful of meatloaf. Everyone stared, and she swallowed guiltily.

"I said I've had a day of rigorous crime fighting," she repeated sans meatloaf.

"Arno says the Banner kids stole their jet," Tod explained.

"They did not!"

"They returned it after Shannon took them to a baseball game."

"Arno didn't say that!"

"And Gwendy got knocked down by a foul ball, and landed in someone's popcorn?" Janet asked, already knowing how the story might turn out.

The door slammed open, and Jesse "Hazard" Pugliese stumbled through. Although normally Caucasian and under 5'7", Jesse had swelled to his maximum seven foot green form. Outside, Shannon "American Dream" Carter could be heard whooping exuberantly.

"The showers are mine!" was what Tod thought she was saying. He stuck his head out the door to see the bathroom door down the hall slam.

"What was it this time?" the Doctor sighed.

"She threw me out of the bathroom."

He chuckled. "Never mess with a super-soldier."

To Tod, dinner was looking like a lost cause. He walked out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Janet shouted.

"The kitchen!"

"And no," Mark added, "she landed in the cotton candy."

"Priceless," chuckled Jesse, "her expression was _priceless._"

Tod reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of chocolate milk. He popped the lid with a practiced thumb, and swallowed a mouthful.

Shannon walked past in her red-white-and-blue pajamas, her hair wrapped in a towel, and whistling "My Country 'Tis of Thee." At least, that's what Tod thought it was called. She waltzed out and up the stairs. Tod took another drink.

He considered it bad enough living in Avenger's Mansion, with all these kids who copied their parents and wanted to be superheroes. Then, not actually having powers—_yet—_it seemed that everyone he knew inherited at least a semblance of their parent hero's ability—made it worse.

It wasn't all that interesting an idea, being a super-hero. But sometimes, he imagined what it might be like.

* * *

Meanwhile, at one of those 1st something or other banks, there was a robbery in progress.

"Shades, Wheelie, get the money. We aren't sticking around here any longer than we need to," The leader ordered. He stood in the middle of the room, holding an assault rifle—ridiculously heavy duty, but this _was_ New York, the official Super-Hero capitol of the world. His first companion, nicknamed for the large sunglasses he wore, leapt over the teller's desk to retrieve the money, while "Wheelie" stepped on top of the counter and walked over. He grabbed a teller, and headed for the vault.

The leader turned, and looked over each person. If it came to Spider-Man or the Human Torch or someone smashing through the doors—and considering where this was, it probably would—they would need just the right hostage. Or maybe…

"You two!" he shouted, pointing at two younger children. "You coming with us."

"I don't wanna go," one child protested. The leader began to walk toward him.

"Well I'm sorry if you don't _like_ it."

"Sorry that I don't like it?"

The leader turned to see a teenage girl in a strange red and black costume. A silvery helmet covered the top half of her head. He jumped back.

"How'd YOU get in here?"

"Umm, by the door?" she suggested. "No wait, that's probably not good enough. How about the ceiling?"

"What does _that_ mean?"

She rolled her eyes. "You do _not_ take new ideas very well, do you?"

Shades came running back in. "Sir, we're having a little trouble with—" He saw the girl, and aimed at her.

The girl ran forward. She knocked Shades's gun away from him, and he sung at her head. She shrank two feet, whipped her arms over her head, and regained the lost height.

Meanwhile, Wheelie came running back in screaming. "Ants, sir! Ants! Yaaaagh!"

Needless to say, the superhero girl was the only one who understood him. Then she knocked him out as he ran for the doors. This was too easy sometimes.

While she wasn't looking, the leader made a run for the vault, figuring he could make it out with the money. What he didn't count on were the ants, which had swarmed all over the money, and didn't make him all that enthusiastic about picking it up.

"So whose plan was this? And what's with the nicknames? I mean, Shades and _Wheelie_? Come ON!"

He turned unenthusiastically around, to see there was no one there. Behind him, the girl swelled into existence. She kicked him. Three down.

She motioned the ants to leave through the vents while she dealt with the three would-be bank robbers. She pulled out a short length of cable, and set to work.

She dragged him out of the bank vault to see that someone had pulled the alarm. Shades and Wheelie were lying on the floor, being used as a seat by groups of people at a time.

One of the tellers came up to her, and began to speak. "You saved ou—"

"Okay, please stop now."

"…What?"

The superhero girl rolled her eyes. "This is my least favorite part. Saved our lives, blah blah blah, bad guys go to jail, blah blah blah, always brush your teeth, blah blah blah. I was _planning_ on saving your lives. Why else would I be wearing this costume, huh?"

The teller looked confused, and nodded. "Well… uh… Thanks, I guess, Ant-Girl."

Ant-Girl threw her a salute, and shrank. Moments later, she was riding a winged ant out of the doors.

She grew back to her full size, and pulled her helmet off. Clearly in a good mood, she even started singing.

"I'm walking on sun-_shine,_ whoa-oh!

I'm walking on sun-_shine_, whoa-oh!

I'm walking on sun-_shine_, whoa-oh!

And don't it feel g—

The door slammed open to reveal her mother. "Cassie Lang, where have you been? I've been worried sick… about… you…"

"Busted," Cassie muttered under her breath.


End file.
